Bio

Revis Johnson

Revis Johnson was born in Hollywood, California in the mid fifties and grew up listening to the birth of blues rock which became stuck in his soul. He started playing music when he was eight years old learning piano from his grandfather who was a famous trumpet player and band leader back in the radio days in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania. He quickly switched to guitar after hearing his parents recordings of BB King, Howlin' Wolf, Muddy Waters, & Robert Johnson just to name a few. Revis formed his first blues band as a young teenager and started playing backyard parties and soon moved into the blues nightclub circuit on the west coast. Always surrounding himself with the best musicians on stage, Revis became a popular blues vocalist, guitarist and entertainer and often would attract stars like Gregg Allman, Bonnie Bramlett & George Thorogood asking him if they could sit in with his band.

Revis met his first wife when he took a job delivering the LA Times in the middle of the night and when he threw a paper on an unknown doorstep a girl opened the door and it was love at first sight. They got married and had three daughters, but working days in a music store and the nightly grind of playing clubs, Revis' wife left him single and alone with the girls to raise on his own. After getting in a near death fight altercation at a night club gig, Revis became interested in martial arts and after years of study became a fourth degree kenpo black belt. Always needing extra income raising his children he started teaching karate during the day but always playing music at night. Revis' second marriage only lasted a year but it gave him a son that would eventually come to live with him but only after a year long brutal custody battle leaving him drowned in debt. Today Revis' son John is following in his fathers footsteps and is a jazz prodigy trombone player living in New York. Revis thought three times would be a charm but that marriage was also a bust and he's a single man to this day.

After over thirty years of playing clubs and living the hard life of a blues musician, Revis finally scraped together enough funds to record an album of his own original songs (and one cover- Trouble No More- Muddy Waters). Revis Johnson the original California redneck blues man takes a break from the raunchiest beer stained dives on the west coast and invites you on a tour of the blues like you've never heard before from protecting gun rights to catching the bed on fire. This album of rocking and traditional blues features some of the best blues musicians that tour worldwide playing harmonica, sax, trumpet, bone, dobro, slide guitar, bass & drums topped off with gritty beer breath vocals sung by Revis that will leave you humming his unforgettable tunes inspired from his down and out life of living the bearded blues.

I hope you have as much fun listening to this record as I did making it.